EU bass quotas could ‘ruin’ local fishing trade

UKIP leader Nigel Farage with a fish he caught off Littlehampton (SUS-150523-134232001)

Kyran Schmidt

Published:11:28Wednesday 06 January 2016

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NEW bass fishing quotas could ‘ruin’ the local fishing trade, while having little effect on fish stocks, a tackle shop owner has warned.

Under new EU restrictions, in force from January 1 until June 30, recreational anglers fishing off UK shores must release any bass that they catch. From July, fishermen will be limited to a catch a day.

But in negotiating an exemption for gill boats, Martin Salter, campaign chief for the Angling Trust, said politicians have ‘capitulated to commercial pressure from the very sector that has caused the decline of bass stocks in the first place’.